Money News

Tough times still ahead for consumers, says expert

Thu 11th Mar 2010

Richard Perks, director of retail research for Mintel, stated it was an "obvious" fact that such costs for the consumer would rise and added it was likely they would end this year worse off than in 2009.

He said: "I don't see this as the start of things picking up. I think we've had the pick-up, and on the whole incomes are being squeezed again now."

The British Retail Consortium (KPMG) found that last month UK retail sales values rose 2.2 per cent in comparison with February 2009.

Food sales slowed due to the snowy weather, meaning shoppers stocked up during January but non-food items such as clothing and footwear showed strong gains.

According to the Local Data Company, some town centre shopping areas saw crowds reduce by a fifth, and across Britain vacancy rates in public places shot to 12 per cent.